We commend the Republican Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley and the legislators of Mississippi and Alabama for making a motion in their state houses and senates to take down the Confederate Flag but the struggle must continue. The National Conversation on Race must take place or America will not be at peace.

Southern States want to relive the Civil War with this recent conversation and it’s not beneficial to the United States, it is not beneficial to its residents nor its political leaders. These Southern States (5) have the Stars and Bars as part of their state flag.

Question: Is this praising white culture and its heritage or a back door to racism, that is in the eye of the beholder?

Southern white Christians used the Confederate Flag and the church to suppress African Americans; they are trying to do it again. White Christians have some questions that have to be answered.

“We are in no position to judge the souls of hundreds of thousands of men long dead. But to judge their cause is a simple matter, and their cause was monstrous. And whatever the anguish of white Southerners over this re-evaluation of the past, it pales in comparison to the trauma wrought by the lionization of the Confederacy.

“We are sometimes asked, in the name of patriotism,” said Frederick Douglass in 1871, “to forget the merits of this fearful struggle, and to remember with equal admiration those who struck at the nation’s life and those who struck to save it, those who fought for slavery and those who fought for liberty and justice.”

Once we chose to forget. We are now choosing to remember”.

“The North’s acquiescence to this purging of historical memory is an essential part of this story. It is not only the sins of the South that must be reckoned with. The Unionist coalition was bigger than the secessionist coalition, but the white supremacist coalition, North and South, dwarfed both of them until the middle of the 20th century.”

The issue must come back to the National Conversation on Race we must not get sidetracked by the confedreate flag controversy we must keep America’s feet to the fire and deal with the racial divide in this great nation. Keep your eyes on the prize.

The United States of America can achieve the heights of greatness when needed, can achieve this greatness in a time of victory. This country has become lazy and thoughtless when it comes to race relations the past 40-50 years. The question needs to be asked will this country strive for that greatness AGAIN, will this country strive for victory in this battle against racism. America tried fixing the problem in 2008 by electing its first known African American president. Most Americans thought that the race problem would be solved by this electoral achievement. It was not, and from 2008 to 2015 racial incidents have increased. The problems between cultures have doubled.

The United States government has failed people of color time and time again which has created this cavernous racial divide in 2015. 1.) Our Native American brothers and sisters were pushed west on reservations and forgotten. 2.) Our Japanese-American brothers and sisters were put in internment camps during World War II as a non combatant enemy. 3.) Thousands and thousands of African men, women, and children were forced to come to the United States into servitude for life.

For African Americans, the playing field is still not level in 2015. This is the racial legacy of the United States of America. Minorities are told everyday to forget about these historical events and move on with their lives. How can this happen when it is part of African American culture? It is our heritage to survive

Americans are told NEVER to forget September 11, 2001. Americans are told NEVER to forget the Holocaust, and the American Civil War.

Blacks are told to get over the history of slavery and move on but these horrible events are part of our culture. American schools are not teaching our children the following events and if this continues Black history will disappear. African Americans are told to forget this date and the institution of slavery.

Date: Tuesday August 20, 1619 It was on this date in 1619 that 20 Africans arrive at Hampton, Virginia, aboard a Dutch ship. They were the first Africans on record to be forcibly settled as involuntary laborers in the North American British Colonies.

2) Forget Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma which burned to the ground on May 31, 1921 and killed over 300 African American men, women, and children. Over 1,000 Black owned business lost and over 3,000 people homeless. There has never been another Black Wall Street in the United States.

3) Forget horseback riders in the night looking for Black political community leaders to hang from a covenient tree. For those who think those days are over then explain what happened in Charleston, South Carolina last week. That was a lynching only with the modern convenience of a gun.

4) Forget about what happened to 14 year old Emmett Till who just looked at a cute Caucasian woman the wrong way and died on August 28, 1955. Young Till was just flirting as young men will but he picked a woman of another color. This young boy was beaten to death by an unruly mob.

5) Forget about the 1930-1950 Jim Crow Laws with separate and unequal services.

6) Forget about February 1, 1960 The lunch counter sit-ins were African American citizens who were spit on, kicked, and liquids poured on them for just wanting equal service at the counter of Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina.

7) Forget about African Americans not being able to play professional baseball, football, or basketball 1947-1962.

8) Forget how the Black Panthers were systematically destroyed while helping the minority community of Oakland, California to defend itself in 1968-75

This is the racial legacy of the United States of America.

NEVER FORGET THESE DATES

Now moving forward to 2015 when a young 21 year old tried to play God, shooting down nine faithful African American Christians. This lost young soul walked into the sacred ground of the Black historical church in the south. Church members should have felt safe in Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal AME at bible study. This is a non-verbal no fly zone for violence. The members of Mother Emanuel AME were not safe.

White America has to start answering some pointed questions about privilege and the lack of respect toward minorities.

QUESTIONS LIKE:-

1) How can the North Carolina police force of Shelby treat a man that had just killed nine people with kindness to the point of buying a hamburger at Burger King before sending him to jail? Do they give African American killers this treatment?

2) Officers gently and politely escort him to the police car from jail and protecting his head from hitting the roof of the cruiser. HMMM, never seen this with African Americans prisioners.

3) Why did they put on bullet proof vest before transporting the alleged killer to the country airport? Do they give African Americans this protection?

4) The judge spoke about giving sympathy to the young man’s family in front of the victims’ families who had just lost their loved ones. It was neither the time nor the place to do or say this.

These are all remnants of white male privilege even after this young male had broken the law and destroyed families. This young man lives to tell the story while young Black males never get that chance.

This was not afforded to Freddie Gray-Baltimore, Michael Brown-St. Louis, Eric Gardner-New York, Oscar Grant-Oakland, Trayvon Martin-Florida, Walter Scott-South Carolina, and Tamir Rice-Cleveland. African American males who needed to speak and cannot. We have to do it for them, all races and all cultures have to speak for them. Once again a lynching, this time by public authority

What happened in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday June 17, 2015 should never happen again.

We commend the Republican Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley and the legislators of Mississippi and Alabama for making a motion in their state houses and senates to take down the Confederate Flag but the struggle must continue. The National Conversation on Race must take place or America will not be at peace.

DO NOT GET DISTRACTED!!!!

We have work to do my fellow Americans.

Notes; – buzzfeed.com

Gary Norris Gray – Writer, Author, Historian. Gibbs Magazine-Oakland, California and New England Informer- Boston Mass. THE GRAYLINE:- The Analects of A Black Disabled Man, The Gray Leopard Cove, Soul Tree Radio In The Raw, and The Batchelor Pad Network on Blogtalkradio.com Disabled Community Activist. Email at garyngray@blackathlete.com